Scripture for Prayer

Day 39 - Saturday 24th March

Identify with a character: Choose one of the people in the story and imagine the scene from their point of view.

Set the Scene: Fill in the details which the scripture leaves out to make the story real for you. Imagine the scenery, the weather, the people.
Be aware of how you feel.

John 11:28-44 (NRSVA)

Martha went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, ‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you.’ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.
The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ But some of them said, ‘Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?’

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upwards and said, ‘Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.’ When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out!’ The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’

A Prayer: End with a formal prayer, such as the Lord's Prayer/Our Father

Today's Meditation

New Life

I suffered, and now there is joy,
I was lonely, and now there is comfort,
I was desolate, and now there is warmth,
I was empty, and now there is fullness.

The years and months of struggle dragged on
And plunged me into dark solitude,
And now, why now,
Do I see the light and feel the warmth?
Is it that my despair reached its depth
And God, in pity, said: enough?
Where was my soul then
When my spirit was so dead?
And now there is a relief,
An almost tangible gratitude
This it is over
And a spark of life and love
Is born from nothingness.

This will not last forever.
But thank you, God,
For living again,
For letting me know and feel
Your life and presence in me.
And if this hope should die again,
Let me remember
The years of emptiness
That passed.